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Telluride, Colorado
Telluride is the rare ski town where the old mining main street still sets the tone, in a narrow valley hemmed in by peaks. A free gondola links the town with Mountain Village in a 12-minute ride, so the car can stay parked all weekend while you ski, hike or ride up for dinner. Summer trails start at the edge of town, and the festivals fill the calendar.
The catch is cost and altitude. The town sits at 8,750 feet, lodging in festival weeks and ski holidays runs high, and the gondola stops during the spring and fall off-seasons, when much of the town takes a break too.
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Ouray, Colorado
Ouray packs a lot into a few blocks at the bottom of a steep bowl of San Juan peaks. The city's sulfur-free hot springs pool is the obvious way to end a day, and the six-mile Perimeter Trail rings the town with about 1,600 feet of climbing, linking Cascade Falls, the Ice Park and Box Canyon Falls.
In winter the Ouray Ice Park, an ice climbing venue inside city limits, offers more than 200 ice and mixed climbs, so January is busier than you might expect. If snow is falling, think twice about the drive south over Red Mountain Pass toward Silverton, a narrow, exposed road that rewards a cautious driver.
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Silverton, Colorado
Silverton is the San Juans with the polish left off: a short main street of brick and false-front buildings, and a town whose summer still turns on the narrow-gauge train from Durango, which has run between the two since 1882. Ride it up and stay the night, and you get the quiet evening after the day-trippers leave, with jeep roads and high basins starting at the edge of town.
It suits people who want a base for big mountain days rather than shopping or fine dining. Winter is sleepy and serious, with deep snow, high passes on both sides and a real sense of being cut off.
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Durango, Colorado
Durango is one of the bigger towns on this list and the easiest to reach, a college and railroad town with its own airport, which makes it the practical way into the San Juans. The paved Animas River Trail stretches more than seven miles through town along the river, and the historic main street has the breweries and restaurants a tiny mountain town can't support.
Its classic day out is the narrow-gauge train to Silverton, in continuous operation between the two towns since 1882, and Purgatory Resort is the ski mountain up the highway to the north. Choose it when you want mountain access with fewer compromises on food, flights and lodging.
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Crested Butte, Colorado
Crested Butte keeps the feel of a mining town that ended up with a ski mountain, rather than a ski mountain that grew a town. Its National Historic District runs along Elk Avenue, a main street of colorful old storefronts with good bars and restaurants, while the ski area sits just up the road at Mount Crested Butte, linked to town by a free bus.
Summer is the stronger season for many visitors, with mountain bike trails close to town and the wildflower meadows that earned it the title of Colorado's Wildflower Capital. Getting there takes commitment, since Crested Butte sits 27 miles up the highway from Gunnison, which is also what keeps it from feeling overrun.
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Salida, Colorado
Salida is one of the more relaxed and better-value towns here, a river town whose downtown sits inside the state's largest historic district. The Arkansas River runs right past the brick blocks, and the whitewater park's man-made waves draw kayakers, river surfers and people who just sit on the bank with a beer and watch.
Mountain bike trails climb out of town, rafting trips run on the Arkansas through the summer, and Monarch Mountain is the low-key ski hill for winter. It works well for a group with mixed energy levels: some on the river, some on the trails, everyone back downtown for dinner.
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Pagosa Springs, Colorado
Pagosa Springs is the pick when hot water is the main event. The Mother Spring at The Springs Resort is the world's deepest measured hot spring: a 1,002-foot plumb line went down without finding the bottom. The resort's soaking pools, more than two dozen of them, sit right in town beside the San Juan River, so a soak is never more than a short walk away. Some of its original pools have been temporarily closed, so check what is open before you book a day pass.
For winter, Wolf Creek Ski Area, which bills itself as having the most snow in Colorado, is up the pass to the east. The town itself is more practical than pretty, so treat this as a soak and ski weekend rather than a main street stroll.
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Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Steamboat pairs a real downtown with a big ski mountain a short bus ride away, and the two still feel like separate places, which is the appeal: you can ski all day and eat somewhere that isn't a base lodge.
The best soak is Strawberry Park Hot Springs in the hills north of town, rustic rock-lined pools that need a reservation and take cash only. Plan around the road. From November into May the county requires four-wheel or all-wheel drive with snow tires or chains to reach the springs, so many visitors book a shuttle instead. In summer the same hills turn into hiking and biking country with the river running through town.
More about Steamboat Springs, Colorado9
Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park is the town at the eastern entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, and the park is why you come: Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous highway in the United States, climbs west from here to 12,183 feet. Back in town, a river walk runs between Elkhorn Avenue and the Big Thompson River, the historic Stanley Hotel, open since 1909, sits on the hill above, and elk wander through town on their spring and fall migrations.
It sits at 7,743 feet and gets very busy in summer, so check the park's current entry rules before you go. The high stretch of Trail Ridge Road closes from fall into late spring, and the quieter winter town suits snowshoeing more than skiing.
More about Estes Park, Colorado10
Taos, New Mexico
Taos earns its place on character alone: an adobe town of galleries and plazas set against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, with Taos Pueblo next door, a living community whose adobe walls are still refinished with fresh plaster each year as part of a village ceremony.
Taos Ski Valley, up a winding canyon road, is a steep, serious mountain for winter, and summer brings high-country hikes and long dry days. Food is a genuine reason to come, with New Mexican cooking built on red and green chile. The Pueblo sets its own visitor hours and schedule, which can change, so check before planning a day around it.
More about Taos, New Mexico11
Jackson, Wyoming
Jackson is expensive and busy, and still one of the best long-weekend bases in the West. Grand Teton National Park starts a few miles north of town, and the elk antler arches on the four corners of the Town Square anchor a walkable center of saloons, galleries and good restaurants.
Snow King, the town's first ski hill, rises right on its edge and makes an easy, cheaper half-day option, while the big resort is 12 miles away at Teton Village. Summer means wildlife at dawn and dusk, Teton hikes and whitewater rafting on the Snake River. Book early for July, August and ski holidays, and expect prices to match the scenery.
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Red Lodge, Montana
Red Lodge is a small town at the Montana end of the Beartooth Highway, the 68-mile mountain drive to Yellowstone's Northeast Entrance, and that road alone is reason to come in summer. The agencies aim to open it by Memorial Day and keep it open until mid-October, but weather often changes those plans, so check before you build a trip around it.
In winter the town turns to Red Lodge Mountain, a local ski hill without big-resort prices, and the main street keeps its bars and cafes going year-round. It suits someone who wants a real small town with one spectacular road attached.
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Livingston, Montana
Livingston is a railroad town on the Yellowstone River with a downtown of old hotels and bars, and it makes a calmer base for Yellowstone than the gateway towns at the park's edge. The drive up Paradise Valley to Gardiner and the north entrance is 54 miles, about an hour.
Chico Hot Springs, about halfway along, has two developed pools open to day visitors, plus a restaurant and a saloon that often has live music, which makes it worth a whole evening. Fly-fishing on the Yellowstone is the classic reason to linger in summer, and the town stays lively when the park traffic thins out.
More about Livingston, Montana14
Whitefish, Montana
Whitefish combines a lively little downtown, a lake at the edge of town and a full ski mountain above it, with Glacier National Park a short drive east. It is also one of the few towns here you can reach by train: Amtrak's Empire Builder stops at the 1928 Great Northern depot, built to echo the railroad's resort hotels in Glacier.
Summer days split easily between the park, the lake and the mountain's trails, and winter brings real skiing with a proper town to come back to. Glacier's popular roads and trailheads crowd badly in July and August, so check the park's current entry rules before you go.
More about Whitefish, Montana15
Ketchum, Idaho
Ketchum is the town at the foot of Sun Valley, where Union Pacific opened the resort in December 1936 with the world's first chairlifts, and it has kept more of a real town than most ski destinations. Bald Mountain rises right above the streets, the Big Wood River and the trails around it fill summer days, and the restaurants are far better than the population suggests.
Ernest Hemingway spent his last years here and is buried in the Ketchum Cemetery. It is pricey in peak seasons, but the Sawtooth Mountains up the highway to the north make three days easy to fill.
More about Ketchum, Idaho16
McCall, Idaho
McCall is Idaho's lake-and-mountain town, built around the shore of Payette Lake, with a modest downtown, local ski hills and a long winter that the town leans into. The Winter Carnival is the big moment, when snow sculptures appear across the city ahead of judging at the end of January.
Summer is about the lake: swimming, paddling and slow evenings by the water, with hiking in the surrounding national forest. It is calmer and easier on the wallet than Ketchum, and the drive up the Payette River canyon from Boise is a scenic warm-up for the weekend.
More about McCall, Idaho17
Sandpoint, Idaho
Sandpoint sits on Lake Pend Oreille, the largest lake in Idaho and the fifth deepest in the country, with Schweitzer, a full ski mountain, rising behind town. That gives it an unusual double life: beaches and boats in summer, and lake views from the ski runs in winter.
The downtown is compact and lived in, with bars, cafes and shops that serve locals as much as visitors. Summer is the easy sell. Winter is gray and snowy at lake level, but the skiing can be excellent, and a lakeside town in the snow has a quiet charm that ski villages rarely manage.
More about Sandpoint, Idaho18
Bishop, California
Bishop is the working town of the Eastern Sierra, set on the floor of the Owens Valley with the high peaks rising to the west. Climbers know it for the Buttermilks, a field of huge granite boulders in the foothills a short drive west of town, and the roads up Bishop Creek lead to lake basins and trailheads for long summer days.
Keough's Hot Springs, south of town, has been open to the public since 1919, and Erick Schat's Bakkery, known for its sheepherder bread, is a ritual stop on the way through. Because the town sits far below the peaks, it makes a gentler base for altitude, and Mule Days fills it with crowds in late May.
More about Bishop, California19
Truckee, California
Truckee is the old railroad town just north of Lake Tahoe, and it gives a better long weekend than most of the lake's casino and condo strips. The historic downtown grew up around the railroad, with restaurants and bars in its 19th-century buildings, and Amtrak's California Zephyr still stops at the depot, which also houses the visitor center.
Donner Lake is minutes away for summer swims and paddling, Tahoe itself is a short drive south, and a cluster of big ski resorts surrounds the town. Interstate 80 over Donner Summit is the risk: storms bring chain controls and closures, so leave slack in any winter plan.
More about Truckee, California20
Joseph, Oregon
Joseph is a small town at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains that became an arts town thanks to bronze casting: more than a dozen bronze sculptures line Main Street, and there are now three local foundries. A short drive south, the Wallowa Lake Tramway climbs to the top of 8,150-foot Mount Howard, and the Eagle Cap Wilderness beyond holds alpine lakes and 31 peaks higher than 8,000 feet.
Terminal Gravity, one of Oregon's best-loved breweries, is in neighboring Enterprise. Joseph is a long drive from anywhere, which keeps it quiet, and it is at its best from summer into early fall.
More about Joseph, Oregon21
Winthrop, Washington
Winthrop dresses its main street in Old West storefronts, which could feel gimmicky, but the valley around it is the real draw. Methow Trails, the largest cross-country trail system in North America, grooms more than 220 kilometers of winter trails, so a snowy weekend here means skiing out from your lodging rather than waiting in a lift line.
The same country turns into hiking and mountain biking terrain in summer. The North Cascades Highway is the classic summer approach over the mountains from the Seattle side, but it closes for the winter season, usually from late fall to spring, so winter visitors come the long way around.
More about Winthrop, Washington22
Leavenworth, Washington
Leavenworth went all in on a theme in the 1960s, when the town rebuilt its center on the model of a Bavarian village, and it still divides opinion: some find it charming, others find it a stage set. What makes it work for a weekend is the setting, where Icicle Creek meets the Wenatchee River below the Cascades, with trails and river days close by.
U.S. Route 2 runs west over Stevens Pass, with its ski area, toward the Seattle area. December is the big month, when the tree-lighting celebration draws thousands and jams the highway, so come midweek or outside festival weekends if you want the town without the crowds.
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